Bishop is consistently patient with gold, which is setting two-decade lows. "I'm operating on the assumption that gold and gold shares ($XAU)
XAU, -3.01%
bottomed in August and that this market is getting better, not worse," he tells his believers.

Bishop is practical. He doesn't expect a wave of panic gold-buying ahead of Year 2000 woes. Best development for the fading metal: gold.com. A name change, says Bishop about the metal and the Internet phenomenon, "is perhaps the best development gold aficionados could hope for."

-- High-definition digital television. On the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we hear a lot about how digital television could boost shares of electronic retailers, technology companies and even cable companies. After all, between now and the year 2006, as many as 250 million U.S. television sets will need to "go digital."

Money manager Kyle Krueger of $20 million Apollo Capital in Florida tells me he has been "searching and thinking about how to invest in HDTV for 10 years." Krueger says the replacement cycle for new TV sets and settop boxes could reach $1 trillion.

Krueger, who specializes in tiny companies that have market caps of $50 million or less, says he backs Florida retailer Sound Advice (SUND)
SUND, +6.72%
. The company operates 24 Sound Advice showrooms in Florida. The company, which is slightly profitable, has no long-term debt, had sales of $156 million in the '98 fiscal year yet has a stock -- at 3 or so on Nasdaq -- that sells for just 8 percent of sales.

Krueger says Sound Advice could earn as much as $2 a share by the year 2000. He compares Sound Advice to Tweeter Home Entertainment (TWTR)
TWTR, +0.05%
, recently brought public by BT Alex Brown. Tweeter stock at 29 or so sells at a price-earnings multiple that should give Sound Advice a value of 25 or so a share, he says.

Tweeter, by the way, is a $180 million company. Sound Advice's stock is worth about $12 million.

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